


Running Wild

by Cupcakemolotov



Series: come alive [41]
Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Anti-Salvatores, F/M, No Smut, Not Bonnie friendly, Not Elena friendly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-30
Updated: 2018-04-30
Packaged: 2019-04-30 08:21:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14492793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cupcakemolotov/pseuds/Cupcakemolotov
Summary: Kol is dead, Silas is free and Klaus is the silent threat bearing down on them. A night out with the girls is just what Caroline needs to clear her mind. But Damon ruins everything he touches, and Klaus is rarely content with the shadows.





	Running Wild

**Author's Note:**

> Written for klaroline AU week: Canon-ish: Using TVD or TO canon as a jumping off point. PreCanon was requested (Human!Caroline, anyone?) but down the line fix its, or jumping off from any episode you like works too!

The brick was cold against her spine. The bar was muted here, the sounds of Elena singing drowned out. The burning behind her eyes wasn't tears, but exhaustion, and she closed her eyes against the glare of the single street lamp.

It’d been a shitty week. She was tired and this was supposed to have been a fun girls night out. A chance to decompress. It had started out that way, until Elena had not so casually brought up Klaus. Caroline didn't want to talk about the hybrid, not after the explosive night when she'd almost died.

She dreamed of his blood last night. The taste of it along her tongue. How she’d woken, cradled against his chest and warmer than she’d been since she changed.

She'd been avoiding Klaus, trying to unscramble her confusion. That he’d had all but confirmed that he thought he was in love with her. It was one thing to make that gamble when she was dying, but living with the reality was an entirely different matter. Tyler had been tight lipped and calculating, but he'd disappeared on her before she could pin him down.

She'd kept her mouth shut, when Elena had reappeared without the cure. Caroline was certain her friend's suspected something had gone down, but she doubted they suspected the truth. Klaus hadn't made a move yet, but everyone knew it was coming. Kol’s death was the violence awaiting on the horizon, and Caroline didn't know what to expect.

She knew that Damon was hoping Elena could wheedle something out of her. Hence, the argument Caroline had just walked away from. But she didn't have anything to offer, and she didn't know how to help. Elena had killed Kol. Had sentenced an entire line to genocide, for a chance to be human again. A chance that so far hadn't even panned out. Silas was still hidden and all those deaths had been for nothing.

“I must say, sweetheart, that I hardly expected to find you outside. Here I was hoping for a chance to see you perform. If I remember correctly, you enjoy singing.”

The accented words had her shoulders stiffening, and her lashes parted to find Klaus watching her. The sight of him in his usual Henley, necklaces glinting in the light had her stomach jumping. His eyes gleamed at her, the casual stance of his body anything but soothing. Even in the harshness of the street light he was beautiful, and she had never resented him for it more.

“Klaus,” she muttered, frowning at the curve of his mouth. “Why are you here?”

A hint of dimple as he paced towards her, gaze intent on her face as she stayed pressed against the wall. Awareness ran down her spine, even was unease knotted in her belly. Caroline had no doubt that Klaus had known the moment Elena returned to Mystic Falls, that he knew her friend was inside. Klaus thrived on knowing more than everyone around him, and she was dead certain he was waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike.

“Don't fret. I haven't come to deal with your little collection of hypocrites who are so drunkenly enjoying themselves, easy prey as they'd make.”

Caroline frowned, fingers curling into her palms. She wanted to take his bait, snapback. Allow their old venom to color her tongue, gouge him just a little, but she refrained. “Then why are you here?”

A flicker of lashes, and his smile left his face. His gaze was intent, she stared stubbornly back. Klaus always saw more than she wanted, but backing down was a weakness she couldn't allow herself.

“How are you, Caroline?”

“That’s not your concern,” she returned firmly, straightening her spine. That just seemed to amuse him, and he moved closer, stopping only when the heat of him was nearly tangible. Her skin prickled, vampire sliding beneath her skin at the glints of gold around his pupil. Her stomach jumped, breath hitching as awareness prickled along her skin.

“No? I suppose we shall see, won't we?” His smile was slow and bladed. Caroline tilted her chin, eyes narrowed, but he continued. “As for why I am here, I’ve spent a fairly boring evening keeping an eye on the Salvatore brothers. The plot to locate Silas may have failed, but I sincerely doubt it was the only asinine thought in Damon’s head. They’ll try again, and I've no intention of letting them.”

Caroline shifted uncomfortably, but she couldn't disagree with him. Silas was something better left buried. Kol had been a wild card, a threat that had occasionally unnerved Klaus, and he'd been willing to slaughter all of them to stop Silas. Looking away, she sighed. “I don't know about their plans.”

“Of course you don't,” Klaus said, voice softly ruthless. “You'd try to stop them, save them from themselves. Their lives exist on borrowed time, Caroline, and one day soon they’ll find themselves on the butcher's block.”

Her gaze slammed back into his and she glared at him. “Do you think I'll simply let you kill them?”

Klaus’s laughed was low in his throat, and his chin dipped, breath hot on her face. “Of course not, but tell me, Caroline. How long do you think you'll continue to stand with them when they can’t be bothered to defend you?”

Caroline jolted, stared at him with startled eyes. “You have no idea what you're talking about. Elena and Bonnie are my friends and I won't let you kill them.”

"Ah, but sweetheart, that's my point." His smile was calculated as he brushed a curl over her shoulder, eyed glittering. "You'd have stood with my fool of a hybrid, the witch and doppelgänger, until eternity cracked their bones and left them as ash."

A shiver ran down her spine, at the graze of his fingertip, and she shifted her weight to hide it. The gleam behind his gaze said it saw it, and she ground her teeth to keep from simply reacting. She lifted her chin. "Would have?"

Dimples creased his cheeks, but there was only the hunt in Klaus’ eyes. “Tell me, Caroline, how comfortable are you with the decisions they've made? Genocide, in the same of a single cure. Leaving you to clean up their messes; have they inquired about your well being? How you survived my rage? No? It's hard, isn't it, fighting for those who won't fight for you."

His words were blows in her chest, they rattled the frustration and resentment that had already knotted along her lungs that night. Elena’s arguments, Bonnie’s distrustful eyes. Tyler's schemes and abandonment, her friend's endless orbit around Elena left her with gouges that she refused to allow herself to acknowledge. Then there was this monster before her, with the daunting centuries behind his eyes and his marionette strings. The tension that ran between them was a vibrant, hot thread, and she struggled to ignore the growing tension low in her belly.

It was a strain, not to react to his knowing eyes.

"I’ve chosen my friends, Klaus.”

Klaus clasped his hands behind his back, and nodded. "True, but you're still young. Loyalties can change. Have you ever wondered, when your alone in the safety of your bedroom, what it means to live forever, Caroline? What true loyalty means? I am not a child, to care about something lightly. We’ve yet to see the lengths I'll go on your behalf, and isn't that intriguing?”

"No."

It was a lie. She'd seen her blood between his teeth' had tasted his, and when the house was at its quietest and darkest, sometimes she did wonder. What did this monster's nightmare want from her?

Klaus made low sound of dissent, amusement curling his lips. But to her surprise, he stepped away from her, and she felt cold. The usual relief was missing, and that rattled her far more than anything he'd said.

"You will."

The calmness, the assurance in his voice left her grinding her teeth, and she moved aggressively forward, until she was in his space. "Don't tell me how I will or will not feel, Klaus. You don't get to determine that.”

"No?" He murmured, voice low and dangerous. His smile sharpened and he met her gaze wild feral eyes. “You’ll find Caroline, that in the end, I will have to do little more than wait. I can be patient. Hold fast to your friends if you must, sweetheart, but you won't find what you need in them.”

“You don't know that.”

She froze, when his fingertips smoothed along her jawline. “I do, and more importantly, so do you. It's why you're out here with me, instead of simpering over the Salvatore’s arrival. It's why your friends watch you with wary, uncertain eyes and why they didn't tell you about their plot to kill Kol. You're meant for more than this backwater town, and one day the realization will sink into your veins, and you won't look back.”

Caroline pulled away from his touch and bared her teeth. “I don't abandon those I love.”

Klaus’ eyes flared gold and the utter want on his face rocked her. “I'm counting on it.”

“I'm not yours.”

“Eternity is a long time. Do you imagine that I will not take every opportunity to crawl into the marrow of your bones?” He let his smile fall, gaze devouring before he turned away. “Enjoy the time with your friends, love. I can’t promise the future will be quite so idyllic. Although I’ve no doubt you’ll thrive.”

Her pulse thudded in her throat, as he melted back into the shadows. Crossing her arms, she shivered. He meant every word, of that she had no doubt. He planned on killing her friends for Kol’s death, was arranging what he thought of their future along the chessboard in his mind. She took a calming breath and straightened.

She hadn't chosen him. Didn't see how he thought she would, but he was right, eternity was a long time. Caroline didn't know what the future held, but for now, it wasn't him.

She'd do what was necessary to keep it that way.


End file.
